Plasma FAQ

[Kharnellius]

Plasma...



I have created test maps to try to understand what the different options mean.  I can't seem to find any difference in how it operates no matter what I change the fields to.  This includes deleting the Plasma then painting new Plasma with the new values.  I have created Plasma fields side by side to compare....no difference.  Then I assumed the values changed all Plasma on a map.  So then I tried timing the different values on different test maps.  All come out to have the same effects.

The first options appear to be pretty obvious.

Create Plasma  -  (creates plasma, obviously)
Erase  - (opposite of create, makes sense)
Red/Blue - (selects red or blue for color of plasma to be painted)
Brush Size - (selects brush size, naturally)

But, has anyone figured these out?

Blue/Red Speed %  -  (does nothing)
Blue/Red Decays  -  (you would think it would turn on and off decay but I have been unsuccessful at making it do that).
Blue/Red Durability  -  (also appears to do nothing)

Am I doing something insanely stupid?

[Builder17]

I think speed affects how much plasma slows particle move speed.  8)

Decay doesn't work maybe yet?  :-\

Durability should affect how much damage can plasma take before it decays.

[Kharnellius]

Hmm, with all my testing none of those things are apparent.  Those are exactly what I THOUGHT they meant so we are of the same mind, at least.  However, testing does NOT appear to demonstrate those qualities at all.  Very strange.  Am I doing something wrong?

[Relli]

Am I doing something wrong?

I would start by asking what you're doing to test these values. As a quick example, if you set durability of one test to the base 120, and set another test at 100, there might be a difference that's too small to readily detect. If you set the durability of one test to 1 and another test to 10 million, suddenly there's a much more noticeable difference. If THOSE two values remained virtually indistinguishable, THEN we've got a broken feature.

[Kharnellius]

Funny I was testing this theory while you typed that.  Here is my latest test with screen grabs.  The number below each area is the durability I used when placing that section of plasma.

They all had start to cut a pretty obvious path at about the 35 second mark and were all moving at nearly full speed after about 43 seconds (as illustrated).

The two images are identical with the second showing the fields I used to keep it as uniform as possible.  All 3 emitters were cloned off of the first which is set to 7 particles with a max speed of 4 (all other values left at default).

[planetfall]

So here's a thought - do the do-nothing inputs act as globals? If memory serves, those settings predate the general settings pane.

[Kharnellius]

Yes, I tried that as well (original post).  Any time you click on a different item, the values are reset to the defaults.  Does this mean the global values keep getting reset on their own?  Very confusing.

[Sorrontis]

Could be a bug then  :o